Independence Of Cyprus Postponed For Month

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29107, 20 January 1960, Page 15

Independence Of Cyprus Postponed For Month

(N.Z. Press Association— Copyright)

(Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, January 19. The Cyprus Ministerial conference yesterday bought time for agreement on the size of future British bases in the island by postponing the date for independence by one month, to March 19, but has not sighted an end to the deadlock which stultified its three days’ work, diplomatic observers said last night.

The conference adjourned last night with the two sides, Britain and the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities, standing firmly on the positions regarding the British sovereign bases with which the conference opened last Saturday.

Observers said the British estimate of the Cypriot attitude to the base question appeared to have been founded on a miscalculation.

British spokesmen at the start of the conference created the impression that the Cypriot leaders, Archbishop Makarios and Dr. Fadil Kutchuk, would readily compromise on the size of the bases.

This has not yet proved to be the case. The Cypriot leaders have stood firmly by their previous offer of 36 square miles.

Authoritative British sources said that Britain was not prepared to scale down the latest requirements, outlined to the conference by the Foreign Secretary (Mr Lloyd). This area has not yet been exactly calculated but is definitely in excess of 120 square miles. It remains true that much detailed work of a straightforward character remains to be done by officials. The postponement of the transfer of power gives time for this to be completed. But there is still no clue as to how the basic deadlock on size of the bases is to be resolved, according to the observers.

Nor is there any official guidance in London whether this will look more soluble in a month’s time than it did when the matter last came before the LondonCyprus working group in November.

One important consequence of the dispute over the bases is seen as the consolidation of understanding between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders. The process by which the communal split which dominated Cyprus in the period of enosis and partition demands has been healed and was carried a stage further when the Archbishop and Dr. Kutchuk jointly supported postponement of independence last night.